AQUACULTUREINDUSTRY

AQUACULTUREINDUSTRY

Lee Seong WeiWendy Wee

AQUACULTUREINDUSTRYLee Seong WeiWendy Wee

First Printing 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced or transmitted in any from orby any means, electronic or mechanical, includingphotocopy recording, or any information storageand retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publisher.

Published By:Penerbit UMKUniversiti Malaysia Kelantan,Karung Berkunci 36,16100 Pengkalan Chepa, KelantanTel: 097717187 Faks: 097717182E-mel: penerbitan@umk.edu.my

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia

Printed By:Linkaran Warna Enterprise1715, Jalan Sultan Yahya Petra,15200 Kota Baru, Kelantan

ISBN: 978-983-57820-2-2

PREFACE

As the Chinese proverb said, "Give fishto a man and he will have foodfor that day, but teach him how to fish then he will have fish for his

whole life". This is practically true for aquaculture or aquatic farming,which has been deemed as one of the rapidly growing industry to supplyfood source besides capture fisheries. Demand for aquaculture productscontinue to increase as the world's population continues to grow. Majoraquaculture products include finfish, shrimps, bivalves, gastropod, andseaweeds.

After decades of development since 1900s, aquaculture has emerged fromsubsistence level and hobbies into large scale production for local andexport markets. There are vast aspects in aquaculture industry that onemay get involved in, from farming to marketing, health management, foodprocessing, system designing, water management, genetics improvementresearch and lots more.

Bear in mind that aquaculture business, like other investments, ischallenging and comes with risks. This book presents fundamentalprinciples of aquaculture practice from a practical how-to perspectivefor those Who seek to understand aquaculture industry and might be inthe industry someday. Laws and regulations practiced in the context ofMalaysia and current issues are also highlighted in this text to providereaders with better understanding on aquaculture industry.

Lee Seong Wei, Ph.D.Department of Agro Industry

Faculty of Agro Industry and Natural ResourcesUniversiti Malaysia Kelantan

CONTENTS Lobster 38Mud Crab 39

CHAPTER TITTLE PAGE 7 LIVE FEED CULTURE 421 INTRODUCTION 1 Green Water/ Microalgae 42

Aquaculture Production 1 Moina and Daphnia 46Overview of Aquaculture Operation 3 Copepod 46WATER QUALITY REQUIREMENT AND

Rotifer 462 Artemia 48ABIOTIC FACTORS 6Temperature 6 8 SEAWEED CULTURE 50Dissolved Oxygen 6 NorilLaver (Porphyra spp.) 50pH 7 Eucheuma 51Salinity 7 Sea string (Gracilaria spp.) 51Turbidity 8 Kelp (Laminaria japonica) 52Ammonia 8 Wakarne/Sea Mustard (Undaria pinnatifida) 53Light 9 Sea Grape (CauLerpa lentiLLifera) 54Substrate 9 9 FISH NUTRITION AND FEED 55Stocking Density 9 Basic Nutrition 55Water Source 10 Live Feed 61

3 CULTURE SYSTEM 11 Formulated Feed 63Pond 12 Feed Processing and Storage 64Raceway 13 10 DISEASE AGENTS IN AQUACULTURE 66Cage and pen 13 Parasite 67Monoculture, Polyculture and Integrated Culture 14 Bacteria 74

4 FINFISH CULTURE 17 Virus 75Tilapia 21 Fungi 76Catfish 24 Nutritional Deficiency 77Seabass 25 11 PROPHYLAXIS AND TREATMENT 78

5 BIVALVE CULTURE 28 Chemical 78Cockle 28 Antibiotic 79Oyster 28 Vaccine 80Clam 29 Probiotic and prebiotic 82Mussel 29 12 INTO AQUACULTURE BUSINESS 83Scallop 30 General Considerations 83

6 CRUSTACEAN CULTURE 31 Issues and Challenges In Aquaculture Industry 86Shrimp 31 13 BmLIOGRAPHY 88Marine Shrimp 31 14 GLOSSARYGiant Freshwater Prawn 34 91Crayfish 36 15 INDEX 95

By definition, aquaculture involved the rearing of aquatic organismsincluding fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants under controlledor semi-controlled conditions. Aquaculture begun as early as 2000 B.C.and China is believed to have started this activity 4000 years ago. Commoncarp, given feed of nymph and by-product of silkworm industry, was thefirst species cultured in rivers and ponds to supply the need of emperor ofChina and the people. However, details on the fish farming was not welldocumented.

1.1 AQUACULTURE PRODUCTION

According to ISSCAAP (International Standard Statistical Classificationof Aquatic Animals and Plants), top ten species groups for aquacultureproduction of aquatic animals in 2004 are carps and other cyprinids;oysters; clams, cockles and arkshells; miscellaneous freshwater fishes;shrimps and prawns; salmons, trouts and smelts; mussels; tilapias andother cichlids; scallops and pectens; and miscellaneous marine molluscs.All these give a total production of 45.4 million ton that equivalent toUSD 63.4 billion.

MeanWhile, top ten countries in aquaculture production of aquatic animalsin 2004 are China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh,Japan, Chile, Norway and USA, which accounted for 40.1 ton totalproduction of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and amphibians. China aloneaccounted for 67.3% of world total production whereas the rest of theworld excluding the top ten countries accounted for 11.8% of the worldtotal production, or equivalent to 5.35 million ton.

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In many poor and developing countries, aquaculture is indeed an importantactivity to obtain cheap animal protein source and .to generate incomefor the family. Per capita supply from aquaculture showed an incrementfrom 0.7 kg in 1970 to 7.8 kg in 2006, an average annual growth rate of6.9%. Aquaculture is not limited to self-subsistant scale, but intensivelycarried out in many countries that contributes substantially to the nationeconomics. According to FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization ofthe United Nation), aquaculture production specifically refers to outputfrom aquaculture activities, which are designated for final harvest forconsumption. In 2006, aquaculture contributed almost 50% of the worldfisheries production of 110 million ton of food fish. On the other hand,world aquatic plant production by aquaculture was 15.1 million ton,worth of USD 7.2 billion. Asia countries (China, Philippines, Indonesia,the Republic of Korea and Japan) are known to be the main producers forworld's total supply of aquatic plants. China by far dominated the worldaquaculture production of aquatic animals and plants.

Culture techniques of aquatic animals and plants are still developing andmore varieties are being cultured than before. Though over 240 differentcultured aquatic animals and plant species were reported in 2004, manymore are unspecified for record. Fish, shrimp and molluscs are the mostcommonly cultured animal whereas seaweed is the most commonlycultured plant (Table 1.1). Expansion and intensification of aquacultureactivities are particularly driven by the following factors:

• overexploitation of capture fisheries

• declining fish stock from the wild

• increasing demand from continuous growth of human population

Table 1.1: Common aquaculture species (Stickney, 2005).

Species Group ExamplesFish Freshwater Tilapia, catfish, carp, eel, snakehead,

salmon, trout, sturgeonMarine/ Seabass, grouper, sea perch, cod, cobia,Brackish ayu, scad, scat, flounder, halibut, milkfish,

mulllet, pompano, sole, sea bream,snapper, yellowtail

Crustacean Shrimp/ Giant tiger shrimp, Pacific white shrimp,prawn Indian white shrimp, blue shrimp, banana

shrimp, kuruma shrimp, giant freshwaterprawn

. Lobster/ Spiny lobster, American lobster, Europeancrayfish lobster, red claw crayfish, red swamp

crayfishCrab Mud crab, blue swimming crab

Molluscs Gastropod Abalone

Bivalves Oyster, mussel, clam, cockle, scallopPlant Seaweed Porphyra, Laminaria, Undaria,

Eucheuma, Gracilaria, Caulerpa

1.2 OVERVIEW OF AQUACULTURE OPERATION

Seed production is very important and key to the success of an aquaculturepractIce. Fully dependence on wild seed often limit the production ofcultured species as quality varies and quantity uncertain. Moreover,~athogens from the wild ~ay be introduc~d into the culture system.herefore, broodstocks obtamed from the wild or farm-raised have to be

~~efUlly sc.r~ened before introduced into the hatchery. Broodstocks areeing condItIoned to ensure the production of good quality offsprings.

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Fish spawning can be carried out in natural or artificial manner. Naturalspawning involves putting the mature males and females together at aproper ratio to induce spawning and fertilisation. Meanwhile, artificialspawning for fish is performed with the aid of hormone injection tostimulate spawning. Other methods to induce spawning include eyeablation for crustacean and temperature manipulation for molluscs.Fertilised eggs then hatch into larvae and transferred into larval rearinztanks. Post larvae 'and juveniles are usually kept in the nursery tanksbefore stocking ~nto t~e grow-out system for further developmentinto marketable SIze (FIgure 1.1). When the cultured species is readyto harvest and market, activities such as off-flavour removal, molluscsdepuration, sortin? and grading, storage of live aquaculture species, andtransportation of live and fresh aquaculture species are carried out.

Broodstock Larvae

Figure 1.1: Overview of aquaculture production cycle.

In most cas~s, decision on culture site and target species is madeafter evaluating factors such as geographical location environmentalcondition, so.cioecon.Ol?ic importa~ce, and governmental'policy. Becauseaquaculture IS an actIv~ty that req~Ires goo~ quality and large volume ofwater resource, strategic geographical Iocano-, to carried out aquaculture

acuvity is likely to near natural water sources like rivers, estuarines,bays, lagoons, mangrove swamps, lakes and reservoirs. Environmentalcondition as well as the climate must be taken into consideration in speciesselection. For example, species selected for culture in the temperatecountries must be able to tolerate to the temperate climate and vice versafor tropical countries. Socio economic importance and governmentalpolicy have significant roles in shaping the aquaculture activities in anation. For instance, the availability of man power, infrastructures,consumer preference, financial support, land use, and etc. Furthermore,target species should possess favarouble traits including fast-growing,low in food conversion ratio (FeR), easy to handle, good quality of meat,resistant to disease, plenty of seed supply and etc.

To operate an aquaculture business, the farm operator has to work hard allthe time from farm setup to feed and health management of the culturedspecies, human resource management, farm maintenance, production,marketing, and financial control. For farm setup, things to do includesite survey and clearance, system design and construction, and watersupply, treatment and discharge. Supply of feed must be able to fullfillthe nutrional requirement of the cultured species and cost effective aswell. Quality food not only promote growth, but also help to improve~he health of the cultured species. When health of the cultured speciesIS well-managed, cost for disease treatment can be reduced. Besides,skillful workers are needed to carry out tasks such as pond preparation forstocking, tanks cleaning, stocks transfer, feeding and harvesting. A farmmanager is responsible to organise workers and to schedule overall farmoperation. Apart from that, the farm operator also has to set a profitableprodu~tion target, plan for marketing and monitor the operational costfrom tune to time.

On the whole, operating an aquaculture business is challenging!

I

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Low concentration of DO may affect the growth rate of cultured fishwhereas critical DO level at 3 mg/L or less can cause mortality of thecultured fish. Fluctuation of DO level during day time and night time arelikely to happen, especially for outdoor system. Usually, D.O lev~l.duringday time is higher than night time owing to photosynthetic aCtI~lty thatproduces oxygen. Concentration of DO tend to falls dramatically atnight and most critically at dawn. Mass mortality of cultured fish canoccur at dawn due to oxygen depletion in the aquaculture system when

Minerals,.suspended solids, settleable solids and gases components in decomposition of organic matter and respiration of organisms take placewater support life of aquatic organisms. Aquaculture product quality actively. Therefore, farmers are advisced to equip the culture systemgreatly relies on water quality. Fish nutrition and general fish health are with aerators or paddlewheels and switch them on whene~er neede? ~oclosely related to the water condition in the culture system. Good water maintain the DO level. Oversaturation of DO should be avoided as this. ISquality is the key of success to an aquaculture project. Before stocking going to cause gas bubble disease to the fish. The DO level can b~ easl~ycultured species into a pond, aquaculturist must make sure that the water measured using DO meter or manually determined by a calorimetricsupply is free from toxic algae, causative agents disease, and harmful titration method, known as the Winkler method.chemical compounds. The following highlights water quality requirementand abiotic factors in aquaculture.

2.3 pH

2.1 TEMPERATURE IpH is an expression of the acid-base relationship designated as thelogarithm ofthe reciprocal of the hydrogen-ion activity. Water is neutral at

Aquatic animal is poikil~therm or cold-blooded, where body temperature pH 7. For most aquatic animals in the freshwater ~ulture ~ystem, optimumcan be regulated accordmg to temperature changes in the environment. pH level ranges from 6.5 to 8.5 whereas for manne species should aboveFor that reason, w~ter temperature in the culture system should be pH 7.0. However, optimum pH level is depending on physiological n~~dmonitored and remam constant at all times, except for system that has of an aquatic animal. For instances, fighting fish (Betta sp.) prefers acidicfrequent wat~r exchange rate. In tropical country like Malaysia, water environ_ment to grow and breed; goldfish requires high calcium and hightemperature in an aquaculture system should be above 25°C but below pH envuonment for the better scale formation.30°C. Temperature changes should not more than 5 °C within an hour,or else this sudden change of water temperature can cause stress andmortality to the cultured fish. 2.4 SALINITY

Salinity refers to dissolved salt content of a body of water and is expressed2.2 DISSOLVED OXYGEN (DO) in parts per thousand (ppt or O!oJ. Freshwater is defined to have salinity

.. less than 0.5 ppt While salinity of the brackish water ranges from 0.5 toDiss?lved oxygen IS expressed m parts pe.r million (ppm) or milligram 30 ppt. A~ ~or marine water, salinity used to range from 30 to 4? ppt.per liter (mg! L). In general, the concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) When saliruty exceeds 40 ppt, the water is regarded as hypersaline orin an aquaculture system should be maintained at 5 mgIL and above. brine water. For fish farmers, hand-held refractometer provides a simple

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2.5

Exposure to light for certain period benefits aquaculture species. Source oflight can be obtained from direct sunlight or artificial lamp. Photoperiodcan be regulated to boost phytoplankton bloom and also speed upbiological process in the cultured species such as gonadal development in

Presence of suspended solids restricted light penetration and cause shrimp, egg hatching, metabolism, etc. For indoor system, photoperiod atturbidity to the water. Suspended solids consist of tiny particles which light: dark (hour) ratio 12: 12 and 14: 10 are commonly practiced for liveare smaller than 0.45 }tm such as silt, mud, sand, plant particles, animal feed culture of rnicroalgae, copepod and artemia. It is rather difficult todetritus, algal mats, food particles, faecal pellets, planktonic organisms manipulate the photoperiod for outdoor system because the photoperiodand etc. Despite that turbidity helps to cool down water tempertature is subjected to seasonal and climate changes. Besides the exposure period,and at the same time retain the water temperature, extreme turbidity has light intensity of the light source also pose effect on the cultured species.adverse effects on cultured species in which causing fish gill clogged,eggs being buried, and visual obstruction for fish larvae to sense for livefeed. Secchi disk is a simple tool that used to measure water clarity. To 2.8 SUBSTRATEobtain a measure~ent, the ?isk which is tied with a string is lowered . .into the water while observmg the depth at which the black and white Substrates are matenals that placed on purpose m the culture system toquadrants on the disk are no longer visible. Then, the disk is slowly serve as sites forhiding,breeding,attachment,oregg protection. Materialsraised again to record for the depth at which it reappears. The Secchi disk used as substrates included fibreglass, plastic, metal, concrete, PVC pipe,measurement is the average of the two observations, based on the Secchi ~lay, san~.and even aquatic plants. Netting also serves as useful materialdepth that is related to water turbidity. Optimum reading is about 30 ern. m the shrimp larval rearing tank to avoid cannibalism among the larvae.

TURBIDITY

that cannot carry oxygen. Fish mortality can occur due to the oxygendepletion.

and quick way to obtain salinity measurement. It is important to knowthe salinity in culture system since salinity affects fish physiology andbreeding, particularly for those anadromous and catadromous species.For example, adult Malaysian giant freshwater prawn tMacrobrachiumrosenbergiii .that lives in freshwater can only breed when salinity isaround 3 to 5 ppt, while the larval stage grows up in brackish water.

2.7 LIGHT

2.6 2.9 STOCKING DENSITY

Ammonia/ammonium (NH/NH/) are nitrogenous wastes from the fish Stocking density is not a static parameter, where the biomass of fishwastes and unfed fish feed. Detectable level of ammonia in an aquaculture stock~d at a~ initial density increases as the fish grows. Optimumsystem should less than 2.5 ppm for warmwater fish and less than 1.0 pprn st?c!dng de~sIty allowed cultured species to live in normal behaviour withfor coldwater fish. To ens~re .low ammonia level in the culture system, minimal pam and stress, thus promote uniformity in size, better growthwater exchange and application of probiotics are essential. Probiotics perfo~ance and survival. For the case in Malaysia, stocking densityplay impo~ant role to.convert NH3 to NH/, which is less harmful. Higb of fi~h m pond ranges from 10 to 25 per m' of water volume. Stockingconcentration of NH3 m an aquaculture system is harmful to the cultured density that overloads the carrying capacity of an aquaculture systemfish when combination of NH3 in fish blood forms rnethaemoglobi often creates problems to management. Overcrowding deteriorates water

quality more easily and cultured species be.comes s.tre~sed and m_orevulnerable to diseases. In contrary, low stockmg density IS not practicaland non-economical to farmers.

2.10 WATERSOURCE

Although-more than 70% of the earth surface is covered with water, notall of the water is suitable for aquaculture activity. Water sources foraquaculture use can be obtained directly from municipal water or fromnatural resources such as surface water and groundwater.

Municipal water is abundant, clean and clear but costly for aquaculturewhich requires large volume of water. This water source is feasible forsmall scale aquaculture. Presence of chlorine or chloramines in the watersource is toxic to the cultured fish. Dechlorination must be carried outprior to water usage by allowing the water to stand for 24 h or by aeration.

Surface water which includes of ocean, bay, river, lake and wetlands isrecognized as the largest water source for aquaculture activities. Thisnatural water resource is cheap and plentiful. However, aquaculturistmust always monitor or check for the existence of contaminants such asheavy metals, herbicides and pesticides before supply to the farm.

Groundwater is the second option after surface water. Typically,groundwater (well water, spring water) offers better water quality foraquaculture activity. Nevertheless, groundwater which located nearbyindustrial area is potentially exposed to pollutants. For safety precaution,any water source that intended for aquaculture activity must be screenedbefore entering the farm water system.

In different regions of the world, culture system adopted for aquaticorganisms are different. Aquaculture can be operated land-based orwater-based. Most popular land-based systems are earthern ponds andraceways, whereas the water-based systems are cages and pens. Water-based system is also regarded as an open system,. where fish cu~tureunit interact directly with the immediate water bodle~. On the basl~ offeeding, mode of operation for aquaculture are classified as e~tensl~e,semi-intensive and intensive (Table 3.1). Due to the fact that the mtensiveculture relies almost completely on external sup~ly of f~ed and theIeedins cost is much hizher than extensive and serru-extensrve cultures,use of intensive culture ~ only feasible if the fish being cultured is of highvalue and profitable when harvested.

Table 3.1: Classification of extensive, semi-intensive and intensiveculture (Rahman et al., '1992).

Mode of Feeding Fish species Site selectionoperationExtensive Solely depends on Planktivorous Rivers rich in

naturally available and omnivorous organic matters,food source, e.g. fish species detritus andplankton, detritus, insect life.benthos and drift.

Semi- Depends on naturally Rivers and slowintensive available food source -flowing lowlandwith the addition of or delta sites.low protein «10%)feed from agriculturalby-products.

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